All Saints Robotics Team Places 2nd in Tournament

We are so proud of the All Saints Robotics Team! They participated in the DMV Catholic Schools Cup Robotics Championship at Bishop McNamara High School this weekend. Our teams came in #2nd place, #4th place and #20th place. In an exciting ending, our 2nd place team (Duro) took the first place team from St. Peter’s School into overtime! Mr. Roy noted that many of the hosts/coaches commented on our students’ outstanding sportsmanship and positive attitude. We believe this is the greatest compliment we can receive as a team.
 
We wish to thank our students for their hard work and dedication, our team parents for all of their support, Mr. Kreitzer for his on-going assistance, and Mr. Ben Roy for directing our Robotics Program at All Saints!

(Reported provided by Bishop McNamara High School.)

The 1st Annual DMV Catholic Schools Cup Robotic Championship was held at Bishop McNamara on Saturday, March 16, 2019.  Fr. Brady (92 years old) from St. John’s offered the opening prayer. Overall, 24 teams participated in the tournament: 8 teams from St. Peter’s, 7 from St. John’s, 3 from St. Mary’s Piscataway, 3 from All Saints Catholic School in Virginia, 2 from Holy Family, and 1 from St Mary’s of the Assumption.  There were 48 rounds and each team participated in 4 qualification matches.

At the end of the 48 rounds, the  following 10 teams qualified for the finals:

Ranking Team # Team Name Grade School
1 10373A The Fantastic 4 8 St. Peter’s School
2 63876A Duro 8 Escuela Católica Todos los Santos
3 82645A The Shooting Stars 6 St. Mary’s Piscataway
4 82645B St. Mary’s Roboteers 8 St. Mary’s Piscataway
5 11747A Maleagent 7 Holy Family School
6 11601A Greek Memes 8 St. Mary’s Assumption
7 95104B Eagle Bot 8 Escuela Católica Todos los Santos
8 10373B Omegarares 8 St. Peter’s School
9 26088J Derple 5 St.  John’s
10 10373F Storm Engineers 7 St. Peter’s School

The format of the finals was that the team in position 10 went against 9, 8 against 7 and so forth.  Teams 10373A and 63876A earned the highest number of points.  These teams then went head to head.

Team 63876A was unique design, but it was not able to hang from the bonus bar like t0373A so everyone assumed that St. Peter’s and the Fantastic 4 would win the cup.  63876A went first and scored 6 points.  Jackie & Amulya drove their robot in an apparent victory.  However, when they reached up to hang from the bonus bar, the hook on their robot broke.  Their score for this match was also 6.  The team was given time to repair their robot and this time they were able to hang and scored 4 more points than the Duro Team from All Saints Catholic School.

Mr. Buckley presented the Cup to all of the St Peter’s students present at the tournament. Each of the team members was given a specially designed medal for their accomplishment.  A great day was had by all!

Kindness to the Community

As part of our “Year of Kindness,” we will continue with Kindness to Community.  Our focus is now on community helpers.  The school will be adopting the City of Manassas Police Department and all grades will participate in showing our gratitude and appreciation for everything they do for our community.  The classes will all participate in different aspects of a gift to the police department.  At home you can talk with your children about all the helpers in our community and how you can show kindness to them.

Also, our kindness to community “confetti house” is touring the classrooms this week. The students will fill it with kindness confetti that represents all the different “kindness to community” activities they have done in December, January and February (i.e. food pantry donations, toy drive).  It has been great to see all the different ways the students have given back to the community.

Major Expansion Planned for All Saints Robotics

Now that we’ve reached 75% of our Annual Fund goal, we would like to share some exciting news about our Robotics Program. As noted previously, proceeds from this year’s Annual Fund will be used to purchase two Next-Generation ActivBoards and expand our Robotics Program.

If we attain 100% of our Annual Fund goal, the Robotics proceeds will be used to introduce Robotics to the elementary grades y expand our existing program in the middle school.

Fall of 2019

  • The middle school Robotics Club will expand to include sixth grade students along with seventh and eighth graders.
  • We will begin offering Robotics as an after school activity for students in fourth and fifth grades. These students will work with Lego® More to Math and utilize our VEX IQ equipment.
  • All Saints will host a Robotics middle school tournament together with Seton School which will host the high school portion of the tournament. Details about this event will be announced in the fall!

Fall of 2020

  • Our middle school Robotics Team will transition from VEX IQ to VEX EDR, a higher level experience for middle and high school students that will allow our students to compete at VRC competitions. This Robotics platform will better prepare our students for STEM opportunities in high school and beyond. If we meet our goals for the Annual Fund, we will begin administrator training and the purchasing of kits and related equipment in the fall of 2019. The All Saints Robotics Team will then transition from VEX IQ to VEX VRC competitions in the 2020-2021 school year.

DONATE TO THE ANNUAL FUND

Science Fair Winners Announced

Congratulations to the following winners of All Saints’ Middle School Science Fair. Thank you, Mrs. Cottingham and Mrs. Woolfrey, for your dedication and guidance throughout the process.

Behavioral & Social Science
1st place: Amara Collins – “Is it Really Childproof?”
2nd place: Krysta Drone – “What Makes Teens Stress?”
3rd place: Macallan Greissinger – “Does Sight Affect Taste?”

Chemistry
1st place: Luke Tessier – “Science is HOT HOT HOT!”
2nd place: Mehek Jamil – “How Bright Can It Glow?”
3rd place: Mary Collins – “Mary’s Cheesecake Factory”

Computer Science
1st place: Robert Harvill – “Chill Out”
2nd place: Matthew Kreitzer – “Fortnite Building Battle”

Earth & Space Science
1st place: Anthony Olivera – “Water Temperature and Hurricanes: What is the Connection?”
2nd place: Jessica Berger – “Surf’s Up”

Engineering
1st place: Kevin Balagtas – “Chugging On Air!”
2nd place: William Odell – “How Much Mass Can a Bridge Sustain?”
3rd place: Taylor Henman – “Does Length and Width Affect Distance?”

Medicine & Health
1st place: Nolen Kristiansen – “See That in the Corner of Your Eye?”
2nd place: Sofia Villatoro – “What You See After an Image”
3rd place: Ryan McGinnis – “There’s No Place Like Home”

Microbiology
1st place: Chris Mills – “The Sugar Wars”
2nd place: Jeffrey Crocker – “Can I Eat That?”
3rd place: Brian Varghese – “Faucet Wars”

Physics
1st place: Will Foster – “Windmills in Motion”
2nd place: Camden Short – “Produce Power”
3rd place: Maggie Horan – “Black is the Warmest Color”

Overall Champions
Grand Champion – Will Foster
1st Runner Up – Nolen Kristiansen
2nd Runner Up – Camden Short
3rd Runner Up – Anthony Olivera

Representing All Saints at the Diocesan Science Fair:
Kevin Balagtas, Amara Collins, Will Foster, Robert Harvill, Mehek Jamil, Nolen Kristiansen, Chris Mills , Anthony Olivera, Camden Short and Luke Tessier

National Geographic Bee

All Saints students in grades four through eight recently participated in the school-wide round of the National Geographic Bee.

Congratulations to our school champion, Robbie Gasser, who will complete an online assessment to determine whether he will qualify to advance to the state level competition. Congratulations to Lucia Miller who won second place, Krysta Drone who won third place, and to the following students who represented their classes in this academic event:

  • Luke Rebholz
  • Cruz Liu
  • Grace Algeier
  • Robert Gasser
  • Declan Martinez
  • Lucia Miller
  • Emily Sherman
  • Camden Short
  • Krysta Drone
  • Lavish Ghori

Middle School Announces House System

La misión de el sistema de Casas se la escuela Católica de Todos los Santos es crear una comunidad de escuela intermedia donde los estudiantes trabajan juntos y se apoyan entre sias they grow in their Catholic faith.  The purpose of each house will be to guide and support the spiritual, academic, social and personal development of each student during their time in middle school.

Our middle school will be comprised of ten houses, each named after a saint.  Each house will be facilitated by a faculty advisor and include students from grades six, seven and eight.  Students will be assigned to a house at the beginning of the year and will remain a member throughout their middle school years at All Saints.

Each of the houses will focus on four specific areas: Advising of Students; Faith & Service; Leadership; and Community Involvement.  Students will be provided opportunities to grow in these areas through weekly meetings during which they will complete team-building exercises and service projects.  Additionally, through a Points System, student efforts will be recognized and a good-natured rivalry among the houses will be fostered.

Kindness Week: May 14-18

Kindness Week is coming to All Saints next week.  The theme is “Spread Kindness Like Confetti.”  A kick off assembly, presented by the Ambassadors, will be held this Friday, May 11 at 11:00 a.m. in the Parish Activity Center.  Kindness Week will emphasize kindness towards others and random acts of kindness.  Be sure to check out our “kindness tree” and the kindness bulletin boards to see how the children are putting this virtue into action.

Kindness Week is just the beginning for a yearlong focus on kindness during the 2018-2019 school year.  Let’s spread kindness like confetti!

Spread Kindness Like Confetti Video

Medical Missionaries Food Collection – Southern VA

All Saints has been invited to provide emergency relief through contributions of the following items: peanut butter, cans of chicken, tuna, spam and any other meats or fish, powdered milk, cereal, macaroni and cheese, soup, pasta and baby food.  Collection bins will be available in the new breezeway through Friday of this week.  In advance, thank you for any support you can provide.

Advanced Band – Superior Ratings at Festival!

Congratulations to the members of the All Saints Advanced Band for their stellar performance at the Arlington Diocese Band Festival on Saturday.  The band was awarded two Superior ratings from the judges and was assessed as an outstanding band in the diocese.  These ratings mark the 40to time that our band has been awarded the highest rating at the festival.  Both the beginner and the advanced bands are now getting ready for another exciting performance at a competition to be held at Busch Gardens in May.

Congratulations, All Saints Band, and thank you, Mr. Ward, for inspiring our students to excellence!